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Occupy Philadelphia: Cures Not Wars

This is a section of the Occupy Philadelphia tent village setup at City Hall. The village is full of signs of discontent that cover subjects such as poverty and homelessness, government incompetence, healthcare, education, corporate power and greed, environment, housing and foreclosures, and wars.

On the subject of wars and military spending; The U.S. military budget accounts for about 40 percent of global arms spending. It is over six times larger than the military budget of China, who is the next big spender. The War in Afghanistan has become the longest war in U.S. history and has had limited success. The costs of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places around the world will be upwards of $1.283 trillion just in 2011. The question is, what is the real reason for fighting these wars?

When we are young and naive, we tend to think that people running governments and major corporations are much smarter than they actually are. Most are not. They are caught up in short-term self interests, arrogance and one-dimensional thinking. Very few transcend the status quo and attain any prudence. As John Steinbeck so eloquently put it: "Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power".